Macbook Pro 13-inch 2020 speakers crackling and distorting sound

I see this to be Apple's Design flaw, the product has its defect even before our purchase. So it is apple's responsibility to fix the problem. We are also protected by EU consumer protection law.

They charge us £1400 for this crap? no way. I am sure they will fix this.

This may also lead to long term hearing problem, so impacted users can file a lawsuit which will make Apple Pay a lumpsump. To avoid it, it will be good if they do a service program at the earliest.

Do you have a consistent way of reproducing this?

In your case can it be fixed by killing coreaudiod process?

If it's fixed by killing coreaudiod, it clearly seems to be an issue with software, not hardware.

Same problem here.

From the other instances in this thread, seems certain to be a software problem and - from reports of it getting worse or being more likely to occur when the machine is being taxed - my money would be on a memory leak somewhere in the audio drivers.

Just wondering if anyone has experienced this issue with one of the new M1 chip Macbook Pros as well?

I'm thinking of making an early upgrade as one way of hopefully putting the audio problem behind me...but if it truly is a software issue, won't be too surprised to hear that the M1's might have it as well.

I contacted Apple by phone to explain my issue. They told me to bring my device in an Apple store. But no time slot was available. So, I brought it to an official Apple vendor. He tried to reproduce the issue without success. He told me he couldn't do anything if he doesn't observe the issue himself. He advised me to capture videos when the problem appears.

I succeded. It's a random issue, but when it appears, it does for all videos or music I play.

Now, I must go back to Apple store or official vendor to bring my device and my evidences. I'll keep you imformed

I wish you the best. I spent hours dealing with Apple on the phone. I sent them 2 sysdiagnose archives and got exactly nowhere. For now, I have a script icon on my desk top to restart coreaudiod when the audio goes side ways.

Same here

Pro 2018

happens mostly when I run vscode, simulators, or youtube and spotify

crackle distorting horrible noise

Have to restart every time

Not what you pay for exactly

Will post a video and put it on FB for Apple to see

Question for everyone here -- I recently retired my 2012 -- logic board went faulty -- just a thought but I noticed this happens more frequently when I have my third party USB-C to ethernet adapter plugged in (need it for online grad school). Is anyone also using USB-C adaptors when they notice their issue?/had resolution from maybe disconnecting the adaptors? (p.s. I hate the new MBs I heard they're bringing back individual ports with the next model)

Finally brought my Mac at the Apple Store.

They noticed the problem and sent it in repair.

They replaced the « Top Case with battery ».

I got back it today. It seems the problem desapeared. I’ll let you know if it appears again.

I have the same issue on my 2020 MBP 13". I find that stopping and restarting coreaudiod doesn't help, but only stopping (and waiting a moment for it to restart automatically) does — i.e. I run only:

sudo launchctl stop com.apple.audio.coreaudiod

this fixed it for me without a restart:

sudo launchctl stop com.apple.audio.coreaudiod && sudo launchctl start com.apple.audio.coreaudiod

Hey, did you manage to resolve this issue? The same thing is also happening to me!

Ditto! Though in truth, I haven't used the speakers too much in this first week with the replacement, so fingers crossed it doesn't recur with this new one.

Copy and paste that command into your terminal. You will need to enter in your lock-screen password after you hit enter